French Cuisine

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When Frederic Soulies opened Pitchoun! Bakery, he aimed to bring a piece of his home country to the streets of downtown Los Angeles. But man cannot survive on baguette alone (to be fair, Pitchoun! serves far more than just baguette, but you get my drift), and Soulies seeks out the taste of France at other...

It would be wrong to say that Spring, the upscale French spot from chef Tony Esnault, feels old-fashioned, as that might indicate stuffiness and overly rich sauces. Spring is anything but stuffy, but it does call to mind the exciting restaurant openings of New York City circa 2003, when food was moving in a more casual direction but still required civility and elegance to be taken seriously. The 6,000-square-foot restaurant takes up the soaring atrium of the Douglas Building, and the room is stunningly beautiful in a softer, more refined way than the industrial-chic spaces we see so much of these days. Read our full review.

“In France, when you’re in pre-school they teach you how to make crepes,” says Allassane Sankare, explaining the source of his crêpier training. He is standing behind a hot round pan in the alley next to the cocktail lounge Pour Vous. Anyone familiar with this upscale Hollywood haunt, or any...

Snails, the slow-moving garden dwellers that view simple table salt as Kryptonite, now play an increasingly prominent role on dinner tables, and not just at French restaurants. Snails are frequently imported from Burgundy, though they’ll occasionally have different terroir or hail from the sea. Chefs love to lavish their tender...

Upon entering Spring, the downtown eatery from former Church & State chef Tony Esnault and partner Yassmin Sarmadi that was years in the making, you are immediately faced with a large open kitchen bustling with white-coat-clad chefs, like something out of Ratatouille. One of the chefs is using kitchen shears to...